1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to refrigerating equipment and processes of various kinds and relates particularly to a dual refrigerant delivery and separation apparatus as well as a process for delivering refrigerant to an evaporator and simultaneously separating liquid and vapor refrigerant discharged from the evaporator.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore many efforts have been made to circulate pressurized refrigerant through an evaporator by using a pair of alternately pressurizable pumping tanks so that high pressure is introduced into one tank to deliver refrigerant to the evaporator, while the other tank is not pressurized and is being charged with liquid refrigerant. Most of these prior art structures have included a relatively large accumulator-separator for receiving refrigerant liquid and vapor from the evaporator and separating the same so that the vapor can be returned to a compressor while the liquid refrigerant is returned to the pumping tanks. Some examples of this type of structure are the U.S. Pat. to Garland No. 3,827,249 and the U.S. Pat. Nos. to Watkins 2,952,137 and 3,848,425.
Also some prior art structures have been provided with a plurality of pumping tanks which have not required an accumulator-separator. However, these prior art structures either have not utilized the tanks for separating refrigerant liquid and vapor on the suction side of the evaporator or have required high pressure for pumping liquid refrigerant to the inlet side of the evaporator. Some examples of this type of structure are the U.S. Pat. Nos. to Watkins 2,931,191 and 3,352,124, and Mauer 3,248,895.